Roswell, New Mexico

Fans of the original WB/UPN series Roswell will remember the extraterrestrials in town chugging on Tabasco whenever they needed to replenish their strength or just wanted to spruce up a dish — you know all the normal things like, tacos, fries, candy bars? Well, don’t expect to see too much of the hot stuff on the The CW’s reboot Roswell, New Mexico. This time around the aliens have different tastes, namely nail polish remover. Wait, what?

“We weren’t allowed to use hot sauce,” explains series creator Carina Adly MacKenzie. “We have the rights to the books, but we don’t have the rights to the original TV show, so anything that we do that references the original show in that way is a homage; it’s a treat for fans!” With hot sauce out of the running for the aliens go-to beverage of choice, MacKenzie had to come up with something else to have them swig on when they needed to up their strength.

“I was like, ‘What’s the weirdest thing that’s readily available and I could imagine people drinking?'” says MacKenzie. “I literally looked around my room and saw nail polish remover and was like, ‘That’s it!’ We have so many bottles of nail polish remover all around our set, we keep saying we should really get a sponsorship, but then also it would be like, ‘Don’t drink it, kids!'”

Oddly, hot sauce isn’t the only condiment that features in the story. Like in the original series, the new show features a pivotal scene in which ketchup is used as a diversion tactic. Unluckily for Jeanine Mason who plays Liz, that meant spending a lot of time covered in the red sauce. “It created a gag reflex for me for a while,” laughs Mason. “I’m kind of over it now…but not really! It was so much ketchup!” She remembers having to shoot a follow-up scene a week after the initial sequence and struggling to get back into the ketchup-soaked costume. “I went to put it on and when they pulled it out of the garment bag and it reeked!” says Mason. “We put it on me and went upstairs and the crew and Carina were like, ‘No! We can’t deal with the stink. You’re not going to wear a uniform in the scene!'” To this day, Mason struggles to add ketchup to her food. “I’m a mustard fan now,” she jokes.